


Spot in my Heart

by Seruna



Series: Universe: Shade and Canach [2]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gap Filler, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 04:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12522984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seruna/pseuds/Seruna
Summary: Trahearne's death induces nightmares and conflicts - and Shade learns to cope. The events taking place after Trahearne's Death and (just) prior to Canach's meeting in the Grove.





	Spot in my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Holla! I thought it was important to add how Caladbolg came into Shade's posession even after he could not even stand to hold it, and what relationship he and Trahearne had. I myself love Trahearne and I refused to hit "F" for a solid half an hour to deliver the finishing blow, so. yeah.  
> Enjoy! Lessthanthree, ~S

Shade cut with his dagger against the straw in front of him, the practice dummy looking ragged and shredded already – yet Shade growled and turned briskly on his heels, made a few furious steps and then threw his dagger over his shoulder into the dummy that inflamed at the contact with the blade and began to break into flame, a heavy cloud of smoke rising into the air.

His chest was heaving and he glared at the blade, pulled his arm over his shoulder and conjured the lightning whip, slashed it forward in a throwing motion and beheaded the poor straw man.

There were others with him in the training field, giving him worried and wary glances and dispersing slowly, creating a safety radius and some distance.

The straw man slowly turned ashen and crumbled, Shade saw the blade fall toward the ground and kicked his foot into the earth, pushing the earth beneath the dagger just enough to propel it in his direction and he caught it from the air with ease, but his expression looked grim and furious.

“Bad day?”, he jumped when a sylvari mentor approached him, one of the many that consulted and taught those sylvari that came newly into the world. She wore a knowing smile, even though she could not possibly know what had festered in Shade's mind.

“So to speak.”, he murmured. Even though his insides bristled with anger, he would not let it out on another sylvari, not a sister.

“Maybe I can help you?”, she offered.

“I very much doubt it.”, Shade answered with a forced smile and decided that if he had caused enough commotion to attract a mentor, he should take his leave. “Thank you for the sentiment. I'll go now.”

“Be well.”, she called after him and he sighed.

Everyone in the Grove knew about Trahearne's fate, knew Shade's connection to the firstborn and everyone treated him like he was made from glass. He knew he was not, that he was made from stronger mettle than most of his kin, yet all power was evidently useless in the end. What good was power when he could not utilize it to safe his friends?

_“Kill me, Commander.”_

_“No, that-”_

_“Shade!”,_ Trahearne's voice echoed in his head and he stood still as the memory washed over him. _“Shade, please.”_

The strike had been kind. Merciful. Fast. Painless.

And yet it haunted him in his dreams, that he had cut down his friend, his mentor, his...

There had been something that had bonded them together, yet Shade had never bothered to find a word for it. Just as a tree would grow its roots into the earth, spread them far and wide, he had not even considered that the particular root had been thicker, sturdier, more resistant, unlike so many others.

Now he knew that it was a platonic love, a spiritual love that had connected them beyond their bodies, an understanding of souls. That was why his death had struck him so harshly, why his absence felt like a gap had opened and sucked in the earth beneath his feet.

Caladbolg rested heavily in his hand and he stared at it contemplatively, thought once more of the dream that had rattled him awake and had shaken him enough to rest in his bark.

It had been a revision of the event's after Mordremoth's fall, only that Trahearne had not remained himself. He had turned into a Mordrem, had succumbed to Mordremoth's influence and tormented his mind, had urged him to join him, but before he could make a choice he had woken, cold and alone, shivering in the cold night air.

That he had not outright rejected it was what gnawed at him most. That his friend was in his mind even though he was in a complete other plane of existence even more so – he was gone and yet, Shade could not make himself let go.

Perhaps it was Caladbolg. It was Trahearne's sword, a gift from the pale tree to one of her Firstborn. Shade had kept it at Caith's behest, even though he could not hold it. It reminded him of Trahearne's fate, that the firstborn had been captured and that Shade might have been there to safe him if he had not gone after the Master of Peace and the egg, that the blade had made the cut to end its owners life.

Yet Shade knew the blade was not to blame. He was, and he could not bear to discard it.

He dragged in some air, tried to shove the thoughts away. _“I'll never....”_ , Shade had said and murmured into the wind,

“I'll never forget you, my friend.”

Caladbolg lay unresponsive and Shade gently wrapped it into a sheath woven gracefully from leafs and grass, then stowed it in his backpack and looked up, gazed over the various sylvari and noticed a dark figure, standing apart and isolated from everybody else, arms folded in front of his chest.

And the thoughts of Trahearne fled his mind for the very first time since the Marshal's death – if even for just a moment – and he approached the sylvari with a smile and a heart that yearned to be whole.


End file.
